He likes playing football with his big brother in their backyard at their home in rural Sandyston, near the Pennsylvania border. He likes hamming it up for the camera when he’s getting his picture taken.

And he just loves pizza.

The only trouble, his parents say, is that Sam can’t communicate with others because of severe speech problems brought on by his Down syndrome. When he does speak, the only people who can easily understand him are his parents and his brother.

“We speak for Sam. He talks through us. It’s like a different language. His brother (12-year-old Steven) understands him the best,” said Sam’s father, Steven, who along with his wife, Lee-Ellen, have filed a due process petition against Sam’s school district, Sandyston-Walpack Consolidated, over the speech and language therapy they say their son needs, but the district has failed to provide despite recommendations from an independent therapist.

The recommendations, made by the Summit-based Creative Speech Solutions, include an increase, from 100 minutes to 300 minutes, the amount of speech/language therapy receives weekly, a seven-week summer program and other related services.

“Sam has always had a strong desire to communicate. If he can’t communicate effectively, how is his going to get along in the world?” said Lee-Ellen Pisauro, a part-time reading teacher at the Alpine School, a grade 1-3 school in Sparta.

“Our goal is for him to reach his full potential,” said Lee-Ellen Pisauro said during an interview with her husband in their living room of their Sussex County home.

An administrative law hearing on the legal action, filed by the Pisauros’ attorney, Paul Barger of Saddle Brook, is scheduled for Friday.

Attorney Eric Harrison of Edison, who is representing the Sandyston-Walpack district, did not return a call seeking comment.

In their 10-page complaint, the Pisauros’ are seeking to force the district to implement all of the recommendations made by Creative Speech Solutions, which evaluated Sam in March at the district’s expense.

In the evaluation, which was cited in the complaint, therapist Anna Pickton wrote:
“(Sam) attempted to converse about very age-appropriate subjects such as episodes from favorite television shows that children his age watch (iCarly). However, due to his severe oral motor speech and language disorder, (Sam) is unable to carry on even a simple conversation without having someone who is highly familiar with his speech interpret for him.”

With approximately 244,000 New Jersey students receiving special education services, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association said complaints about the services are relatively rare.

In the 2011-2012 school year, the state Department of Education found there were about 800 due process complaints filed and 688 requests for mediation, said NJSBA spokesman Frank Belluscio.

Disagreements, however, sometimes do occur, he said.

“There may be disagreements between school professionals and parents concerning education placement, the type of services needed and the manner in which the services are provided. Each special education situation is fact-specific in terms of diagnosis, placement and needed services,” Belluscio wrote in an email.